Tuesday, December 31, 2013

New Year’s Eve

 

I plan to do as much sewing as I can today, that is unless I get stuck helping to take down the Christmas tree.  Still trying to get caught up on the Celtic Solstice Mystery. 

CelticSolstice4a

These are the Part 4   4-patch units.  They went pretty quickly.

CelticSolstice5a

These are the Part 5 Split triangles units.  I still have about 60 more of these to make.  Then I can get started catching up on Part 1 & 2.  I dread doing the chevrons.  Maybe they won’t be as annoying as I think.

PeelingClementine

My little Miss Independent 2 year old granddaughter peeling her own clementine for breakfast. She got it peeled all by herself.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

 

It is Finished!

CrownRoyal7CrownRoyal8 

I finished the Royal Crown quilt and 2 pillows Tuesday afternoon. 

Then it was hurry, hurry to get a head start on food prep for our Christmas dinner.  My daughter found my missing Christmas quilt.  I was so happy!

ChristmasQuilt

Christmas morning I remembered I hadn’t gotten the ham out to thaw.  The kids got up.

Waiting1Waiting2

First Lydia and Teagan got up and wanted to get to the presents.  Then Braxton got up and they had a wrestling match going on.  Still the sleepy head parents slept on.

Finally everyone was up.

DarylShirtLegLamp

OpenPresents1PianoRockingHorseTree

We got down to the business of opening presents. 

Kids1

Mark (middle child), Tony (Dora’s fiance), Lydia (Granddaughter), Dora ( youngest) and David (eldest).

It was a wonderful Christmas Day.  Food was good and all 3 of my children were here. And best of all, Tony proposed to my daughter.  No wedding date has been set yet.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Need More Time!

 

LAQuilting2

Finished this quilt for a customer on Saturday.  I’m still working on the Crown Royal quilt.

CrownRoyal6

The top is done and on the frame ready for quilting.  Still have 2 pillows to make.  Hope I have the pillow forms.  I don’t have time to go buy any.  Can’t make up my mind if I want to bind it in the gold or use the purple  flannel fabric.  I don’t remember if I’ve ever used flannel for binding before or not.  I’m wondering if it would hold up as well as regular cotton fabric.

I have a house to clean and cooking to do tomorrow. Plus babysitting two 2 yr. olds.  Don’t know how I will get everything done.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Where Has This Week Gone?!

 

Monday sort of started out going as planned, but somewhere along the way I wondered off the path.  I didn’t get the quilt on the frame that I’m supposed to quilt this week.

CelticSolstice3bQuiltyFun7 

I finished part 3 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery.  Made 61 pinwheels and 244 half square triangles.  This week’s block for the Quilty Fun Quilt Along are cocoa mugs.  They look like coffee mugs to me, guess that is because I drink more coffee than cocoa. Gotta have that morning coffee!

Tuesday I finally got the quilt on the frame and ready to quilt and then got sidetracked sorting my new FQs by color to pick from for future projects.  2014 will be here before I know it.

Wednesday I was going to spend the day quilting, but that plan didn’t work out. Got up early and started choosing fabrics for 2 projects.

DelightfulStarsFabric

Here are the fabrics I chose for the “Delightful Stars” Quilt Along starting in January.

ViseVersaFabric

These are the fabrics I picked for the Vise Versa BOM That will be starting in January. http://www.genxquilters.com/p/block-of-month.html

Then the Gadding About began.  We didn’t get home until late afternoon, in time to put up the rest of the FQs and fix supper.

ChristmasCenterPiece2013  

I also decorated my table.  I’ve been too busy to do anything more elaborate. I’m still missing my favorite Christmas quilt.  I have no idea where it is hiding.  It will probably come out of hiding after Christmas.  That is what it has been doing in past years.  When it does, I will try to remember where I found it. Think that was my plan for this year too.  It must have moved to a new hiding place, because it wasn’t where I thought it should have been.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Making Progress

 

Part 3 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery.

CelticSolstice3a

There is lots of pressing still to be done and 45 pinwheels to finish.  This is the farthest I’ve gotten on a clue so far.  I’ll have to work really hard after Christmas to get caught up.

 

I’ve been working on the Royal Crown Quilt.

CrownRoyal5

It is getting done, but still a ways to go.  Plus there are 2 pillows to make to go with it.  Hope I can get it done by Christmas.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

The Past Few Days

 

The past few day have been busy.  Besides trying to keep up with two 2 year olds, I managed to finish quilting a customer quilt.

Breakfast12-15-13 

Eating breakfast this morning. Hope someone gets them soon.  This is supposed to be my day off.

CrownRoyal4

Got all the Crown Royal blocks on the design wall and started adding the sashing and sewing the rows. 

QuiltyFun6

So far I’ve been keeping up with the Quilty Fun Quilt Along.  Week 6 is done and I’m ready for week 7 to come out on Monday.

Friday step 3 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery was ready.  I’ve made good progress working on it.  This step is 244 half square triangles and 61 pinwheels.  Today It will be leaders and enders while working on the Crown Royal quilt.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Some Progress Made

 

488 x 3

CelticSolstice2a

Each container has 488 parts needed to make 244 chevron blocks for part 2 of the Celtic Solstice Mystery.  Cutting was all I was able to get done,  Today I move on to other projects and obligations.

PurpleSage4

I finally remembered the Persimmon Quilts BOM and made it.  I like using several purple fabrics, but just not sure I like the stars and moon fabric.  Thought the shade of purple went with the other fabrics.  Now I’m not so sure.

My future helper.

LongArmQuilter1

Can’t wait to put her to work helping to quilt all the tops needing quilting.  She is standing on a storage container under the frame so she can reach the machine. 

Sunday, December 8, 2013

My Week-end So Far

 

Friday it was out to Christmas Lunch with the Needle Turners Bee members and two little girls.

ChristmasLunch1ChristmasLunch2

That was the first time I went anywhere by myself with both of them.  It went pretty well.  Got both of them in the restaurant with no trouble.  Had more things to carry on the way out, so had to get some help.

Got the step 2 directions for Celtic Solstice printed, but that was all. 

Saturday I got up early and started cutting parts for step 2.  Cut all 488 2”x3-1/2” green rectangles and barely got started on the 2” square neutrals.  I had so many interruptions.  There was laundry to fold and Christmas quilts to find and hang.  I’m still missing a Christmas quilt.  I can’t remember where I saw it last.  I can’t even find a picture of it to show my daughter so she can help me look for it. 

 

DecoratingTree 

Then there was the tree to help put together so it could be decorated.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

My Yesterday

 

CrownRoyal3 I finished these blocks.  Made 22 yesterday, so now all 42 are done.  Still need to cut the sashing and pout the top together, but first I have a quilt I need to get quilted.

I finished the blocks and watched 2 two year olds.  All they did all day was push, shove, trip, fall, cry and refuse to share.  Whatever one had, the other wanted.  Typical 2 year old behavior.  Hope the learn to play together soon.

I’m not supposed to babysit today, so hopefully I can get the quilt on the frame to quilt.  Would like to get it done before the next Celtic Solstice Mystery step is released.  Would like to have at least part of the weekend to devote to it.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Week 5

 

QuiltyFun5This week’s Quilty Fun  http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/p/quilty-fun-sew-along-and-blog-tour.html units are flying geese.  I’m wishing now I would have used a light blue instead of the green.  The green seems a little dark now that they are put together.  The instructions called for all scrappy, but I just wasn’t up to picking that many different fabrics that would look good together.  It just seemed a little busy to me and I was a little afraid the flying geese would get lost.

 

A basket full of fabric.

FabricBasket

The fat quarters are cut and ready to go to the Needle Turners  Christmas lunch on Friday.  This year the girls decided to exchange batik FQs, one light and one dark. I was lucky, the lights were on sale and the dark, I already had in my stash.  Of course I bought extra of the lights to add to my stash.

Monday, December 2, 2013

The Waiting Game

 

I got up early for me anyway, to get started on the next block of the Quilty Fun Quilt Along.  It hasn’t been posted yet.  Obviously they aren’t early birds!  Think they are in a later Time Zone.

 

I finished my End of Year UFO Challenge! Yea!  BBHousesSBBHousesL

Here they are, two completed house table runners from my Buggy Barn House and Tree blocks.  I found the Christmas table runner that needed quilting and got it finished too. Now if I could just find all the Christmas quilts I have made over the years.  They are around here somewhere.

ChristmasTableRunner1If I would have remembered it, I would have made it part of the UFO Challenge too.  I am so happy it is done and in time for Christmas at that!  If I make another one, I think I would make it longer.  Think I would put a four patch neutral block in the center.  That way there would be some place to set the table center piece and still show of the ornaments on each end.  If I didn’t have so many other obligations to customers, I would go ahead and make another one.